#BDSFail as Gaza farmers visit Israel

From YNet:

Some 30 Gaza farmers participated in an agricultural expo held in the Eshkol Regional Council last week, despite the hostile relations between Israel and the Strip's government, run by Hamas.

"Agriculture knows no borders," said Uri Madar, of the agriculture department in the District Coordination Office (DCO). "There are various parasites that can 'jump the border' so there is a clear mutual interest here. If things are calm on the security front, there is no reason not to boost agricultural and economical ties."

"Gaza exports produce to Europe every day," Ahmed Shafi, head of the Gaza City Agricultural Association told Ynet. "We export peppers, strawberries, flowers, cherry tomatoes and spices."

Since Operation Pillar of Defense came to its end, Gaza has exported over 200 tons of strawberries, 130 tons of tomatoes, 5 tons of herbs and spices and a million tons of flowers.

The Strip's farmers say they have no problem doing business with their Israeli colleagues. "We want to keep coordinating exports with Israel and even export to Israel," one of the farmers who visited the expo told Ynet.

"We don't look at this from a political point of view. We – and you – look at it from a business point of view."

Another farmer said that Hamas' government leaves the farmers to decide on their own who to do business with. "There's no coordinating with Hamas – only with Israel and the Palestinian Authority."

The goal, others said, is to reach the agricultural export levels noted prior to Hamas' takeover of Gaza, and to export produce to Israel and the West Bank as well.

Israel used to be Gaza's best and biggest market. The Palestinian farmers said that even if Egypt opens the Rafah crossing to exports from Gaza, they would still prefer to export their goods through Israel, because they trust Israel's facilities more.

"We were able to do good business here," a Gaza farmer told Ynet after the expo, adding that there is more to Gaza than militants and rockets. "We make a living and create jobs. And when the economy is good, people are happy and there are no political problems."

This validates Netanyahu's emphasis on an "economic peace" with the PalArabs.

The BDSers are absolutely livid when Palestinian Arabs cooperate with the hated Israelis - for their own self-interest. They have written bizarre articles arguing that these sort of initiatives that directly benefit Palestinian Arabs are terrible. Of course, the real reason they fear economic peace is because it disproves their entire argument that they are "pro-Palestinian" and shows them to be nothing but hypocrites.

In order to justify their hypocrisy, the BDSers will trot out fake "agricultural associations" that they say are against cooperating with Israel.

Palestinian agricultural organisations and the Palestinian BDS National Committee call for the launching of worldwide campaigns on February 9 against Israeli agricultural export corporations in light of their deep complicity in Israel’s ongoing violations of international law and Palestinian human rights.

Endorsed by:

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee
General Union of Palestinian Peasants and Cooperatives
Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees
Palestinian Farmers Union
Popular Struggle Coordination Committee
Stop the Wall
Union of Agricultural Work Committees
Union of Palestinian Agriculture Engineers

A look at the "Palestinian Farmers Union" webpage shows virtually nothing about farming - practically every article is denouncing Israel. They never even explained their vision and mission, because it would have exposed their real agenda, of being a front for an anti-Israel group.

Similarly, the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees has an explicitly anti-Israel political agenda as part of its strategy.

The Union of Agricultural Work Committees was created as an anti-Israel group, and their logo shows this pretty explicitly.

These "agricultural organizations" do not do a thing to help Palestinian Arab farmers, and are political fronts to make it appear that there is a broad-based opposition to economic cooperation with Israel. They don't represent anyone.

In reality, Palestinian Arab farmers will happily work with Israel to succeed - and the BDSers try mightily to hide that simple fact.

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A "cultural intifada" to destroy the Jewish state

The latest stunt to try to blame all of Palestinian Arab woes on Israel, called the "Freedom Bus," flew completely under the radar.

From Bikya Masr:

On Monday, the Freedom Bus marked the final stop of its tour across the Israeli-occupied West Bank by hosting a concert in Bet Sahour.

Over a hundred people came to Bet Sahour’s old city to watch Palestinian performers such as the rap group DAM, Haifa-based reggae band Ministry of Dub-key, and Toot Ard, a Syrian band from the occupied Golan Heights.

It sounds like there were more people in the bands and their crews than there were in the audience.
Outside of this article, there seems to have been no media attention given to yet another stunt designed to ensure that Palestinian Arabs do nothing to better their situation and put all of theior efforts into blame, blame and more blame. The "Freedom Bus" website even calls its purpose to wage a "cultural intifada." (And it has a quote from Judith Butler supporting the infantilization of the cause.)

972mag, abandoning what little pretense it had of being a news site, simply copied a press release from the Freedom Bus' spokesperson instead of bothering to actually report on what appeared to be a major fail. The "pro-Palestinian" crowd simply hasn't figured out that the world is sick of their whining and refusal to take even a scintilla of responsibility for their lives.

But let one of the featured bands talk about their view of how the Middle East should look:

Palestine Street, a local rap group from the nearby Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem, brought the crowd to their feet during their performance, dedicating their closing song to Palestinian refugees living in exile. “Palestine will be free, from the Jordan River to the sea,” they shouted at the end of their set, arousing immense applause from the crowd.

As long as they choose to deny the reality of Israel, there will be Freedom Bus-like gimmicks for another 65 years, and beyond.

Continued Palestinian Arab fantasies, fed by stunts like this, are the biggest impediment to peace. Which means that this "intifada" will ultimately be as counterproductive for the daily lives of average Arabs in the territories as the last two were.

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BDSers - and the PA - furious over increased Israel/EU ties

On Tuesday, the European Union put out a document detailing ongoing ties between Israel and Europe and an increased set of initiatives. Here are excerpts from the document:

The European Union (EU) warmly welcomes this 11th meeting of the EU-Israel Association Council as a demonstration of the significance the EU attaches to its relations with the State of Israel. The EU reiterates the importance of further developing our broad bilateral partnership and looks forward to a comprehensive dialogue and cooperation with our Israeli counterparts.

The EU takes note of the efforts of both parties to develop bilateral relations in the period since the previous meeting of the EU-Israel Association Council. These efforts were framed by the general EU position, as it was established on the occasion of the June 2009 Association Council, that the 2008 decision to upgrade our relations in the framework of the ENP clearly stemmed from common awareness of the traditional links, the cultural and human values, and the economic and security interests that the EU and Israel share.

On exploring the opportunities of the current Action Plan, the EU recalls the exhaustive discussions on the issue, which resulted in a comprehensive list of up to 60 concrete activities in over 15 specific fields, including cooperation with a number of EU agencies within the current policy framework.... The EU welcomes the approval of these activities by the Association Committee and encourages the two parties to actively and urgently implement them, so as to fully demonstrate the capacity of the current EU-Israel Action Plan to deliver more benefits to the EU-Israel partnership.

Israel continued to benefit from a yearly allocation through the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) in the form of institutional cooperation (twinning projects). The EU takes note with satisfaction of the successful completion in the past year of twinning projects with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission and the Ministry of Communications.

The EU reiterates its fundamental commitment to Israel’s security, including with regard to vital threats in the region, which is best guaranteed through peace between Israel and its neighbours. The EU is appalled by recurring rocket attacks from Gaza and condemns in the strongest terms violence deliberately targeting civilians. The EU reiterates its call on all partners in the region for the effective prevention of arms smuggling into Gaza.

The EU and Israel signed an agreement on trade in agricultural, processed agricultural, fish and fishery products in November 2009, which entered into force on 1 January 2010. The implementation of this agreement has already led to a visible increase in overall bilateral trade in these sectors.

In the field of environmental protection, the EU finds the intensification of bilateral cooperation of the highest importance.

Predictably, the BDS crowd which has been pretending that they have been making progress into turning Isrsel into a pariah state is incensed:

The Palestinian Council of Human Rights Organizations (PCHRO), a coalition of 11 Palestinian rights groups, Thursday strongly denounced European Union decision to upgrade its cooperation with Israel, accusing the EU of betraying its own principles.

So is the PA, which still subscribes to the zero-sum game mentality that holds that anything that helps Israel hurts Palestinian Arabs (and vice versa):

Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Bargouthi joined a coalition of rights groups on Thursday expressing outrage at the European Union's expansion of cooperation with Israel.

Bargouthi said the upgrading of bilateral ties was granted in contradiction to the EU's political position criticizing Israel's illegal settlement expansion, occupation and violations of international human rights laws.

Europe's decision will encourage Israel to continue its aggression toward Palestinians and breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Palestinian National Initiative leader said in a statement.

It seems beyond comprehension of the "pro-Palestinian" crowd that Israel's feelings of security, helped by announcements like these, make it more likely to make concessions to Palestinian Arabs, not less.

But then again, if their real objective is not to help build a Palestinian Arab state but to destroy the Palestinian Jewish state, then their statements and actions are perfectly consistent with their goals.

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Enough links to last the weekend

Hamas leader Mahmoud al Zahar told a rally in Gaza that the Holocaust was a Zionist lie. Surprised?

The Economist has a good article about Israel's economic promise, and potential problems. (h/t Yaakov Lozowick)

Israellycool, inspired by my series, makes his own poster.

Speaking of, a Polish site put my posters together in a narrative!

Zach at Facebook notices that a couple of people were killed in a protest in Tanzania, a story that will disappear immediately without a trace because no one can blame the Jews.

Yesterday the PA released a number of prisoners who were involved in major terror attacks - including the massacre of four people near Hebron in August. Palestine Today has smiling photos of them. (Israel arrested them, accidentally killing a man during the search.)

Palestine Today also reports that Israel is looking for a type of gum to keep soldiers alert and awake. I figure, if Israelis are so good at making sex gum, how hard can it be?

Swiss bank UBS has banned money transfers to certain anti-Israel (called "pro-Palestinian") organizations. The major one is Collectif Urgence Palestine, whose webpage says that their objectives are to end occupation, release prisoners and allow the right to return as a first step. Hmm..wonder what Step 2 might be? (It is possible the UBS made the decision after lawsuits from Israeli victims of terror claiming that UBS money transfers funded the attacks.)

Folderol sent a link to some new information indicating that Jews used Greek translations of the Torah in synagogues much later than had been thought. Some of the Greek is written in Hebrew characters.

Richard Millett notices an advertisement for tourism to "Palestine" that seems to imply that Israel doesn't exist. Will the UK advertising board ASA object?

Alan Dershowitz and Yaacov Lozowick respond to the ridiculous Letty Cottin Pogrebin column in the Forward that I skewered last week.

Yaacov also has a nice perspective on Abu Rahma.

I had missed this great story from last month: BDS protesters tried to intimidate a Montreal shoe store owner into dropping a brand of high-end Israeli women's shoes called BeautiFeel. He refused, and the Montreal Jewish community has more than made up for any losses from the weekly protests. (One woman bought $3000 worth of shoes to distribute to the homeless!) (from Gil Troy blog)

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Let's see how those anti-Israel boycotts are doing

From Globes:

The IMF has raised its growth outlook for Israel by 0.3 percentage points in a new World Economic Outlook report published today, on the eve of the World Bank Group and IMF 2007 Annual Meeting. ...It now predicts 4.8% growth in 2007, and 4.2% growth in 2008. The IMF’s growth forecast for Israel is one of the highest for developed countries; the IMF categorizes Israel as such. The IMF predicts higher growth rates in 2007 for Hong Kong and Singapore, at 5.5% each, and for Ireland, at 5%. It predicts 4.4% growth for South Korean, 2.9% growth for the UK, 2.3% for Japan, 2.2% for the US, and 1.8% for Germany. The IMF also predicts 0.1% deflation for Israel this year; the only developed country for which it predicts this. The IMF predicts that Israel’s unemployment rate will fall to 7.5% of the civilian labor force in 2007 and 7.2% in 2008, down from 9% in 2005 and 8.4% in 2006.

I've mentioned before how when Arab nations enforced a boycott against Palestinian Jews in 1946 it backfired spectacularly. One would think that they and their Jew-hating colleagues would learn by now.

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